Components of many electronic, electro-mechanical, and optical devices and systems need precise position and alignment to assure optimal performance. In the case of certain magnetic recording disk drives, for example, a read/write head needs to be carefully positioned with respect to a surface of a disk during use to assure optimum performance and to avoid crashing the head into the disk and causing damage.
Disk drives that utilize a head assembly for reading and/or writing data on a rotatable magnetic disk are well known in the art. In such drives, the head assembly is typically attached to an actuator arm by a head suspension assembly. The head suspension assembly, or suspension assembly, includes a head suspension and a slider onto which a read/write head is provided. The slider and head fly over the spinning disk at precisely determined heights, due to the lift force caused by an air bearing that spins with the disk.
Head suspensions generally include an elongated load beam with a gimbal flexure located at a distal end of the load beam. According to a typical head suspension construction, the gimbal flexure comprises a platform suspended by gimbal arms or struts. The slider, which includes the read/write head or transducer, is mounted to the underside of the platform. The slider is aerodynamically shaped to use the air bearing generated by the spinning disk to produce a lift force off from the disk. During operation of such a disk drive, the gimbal struts permit the slider to pitch and roll about two axes around a load dimple, thereby allowing the slider to precisely follow the disk surface.
The present disclosure provides improved suspensions for precisely supporting the slider during use while precluding excess slider movement during abnormal events, such as external shock.